Photomultiplier circuit with output modulation



1958 M. M. NEEB PHOTOMULTIPLIER CIRCUIT WITH OUTPUT MODULATION Filed May 27, 1.9%

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 AMPL lF/ER Y TONE GENEQA TOQ,

anode vo/fage INVENTOR. MEL v//v M NEEB,

BY WW ATTORNEY Aug. 5, 1958 M. M. NEEB 2,846,500

PHOTOMULTIPLIER CIRCUIT WITH OUTPUT MODULATION Fiiedw May 27, 1954 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 T 'MELVl/V M. NEEB,

INVENTOR,

BY m

ATTORNEY Q 2,846,506 L n h r =2 bikini Patented Aug. 5, 1958 i photomultiplier output circuit which will produce the desired modulation purely electrically, without the use of 2,846,509 motors or the like, and without the necessity for a special Y high-speed light source. The invention permits a simp e PHQTQMULTEPLIERICRRCIgT WETH "GETPUT 5 incandescent lamp to be used as the exciter lamp, and MGDJLATI N involves a minimum of special circuit components. The Melvin M. Neeb, St. Aihans, N. Y., assignor to l airchiid carrier frequency is derived from the same tone generator Camera and iilsiliimehi Ceiphraiieh, e eei'iieieiieh hi as was formerly used to energize the gaseous exciter lamp, Delaware so that problems of frequency and phase are minimized.

a The invention itself will best be understood by conbpphcatmn May 19:4 Sena} 432,86 sidering the following detailed specification of a pre- 9 Cifiiihsferred embodiment thereof, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of the essential elements This invention pertains to light sensitive devices, and of the invention, partly in block form, more particularly to a circuit arrangement by which the Fig. 2 is a graphical representation of the form of the output of a photocell of the electron multiplier type may output signal of the photomultiplier cell, and have superimposed thereon an alternating component. Fig. 3 is a schematic view of a modified form of the In many applications for photosensitive devices, it is invention. 7 desirable to provide an output current or voltage which Basically, the invention depends upon the fact that the is essentially a carrier current or voltage, upon which the output of a photomultiplier can be varied by controlling variations in sensed light intensity are superimposed. The the voltage applied to one of the dynodes or successive problem of subsequent amplification of the variations is accelerating electrodes, specifically to the next to the last thereby made simpler. Another application in which such dynode before the photoelectrons reach the anode thereof. an output is desirable lies in the field of photoelectrically Referring now to Fig. 1 of the drawings, the ground controlled reproducing apparatus, such as facsimile or symbol is to be understood as meaning any common rephotoelectric engraving apparatus, in which it may be turn conductor for the various circuits. It may or may not desired to provide a screen pattern, as will be elaborated be the chassis or frame of the apparatus. In the figure, he inaft numeral 10 designates the drum of an engraving ma- Prior efiorts to provide the modulated output referred 3O Chin of the kind shown in the Boyajean patent, specifito above have principally been of three types: (a) the cally the drum carrying the original to be duplicated. An use of a mechanical chopper for periodically interrupting eX iting lamp, which may be a concentrated filament inthe light beam passing to the cell, (1;) the use of an e candescent lamp, is energized from any suitable constant citing lamp whose intensity can be rapidly varied, such F voltage source, and its light is concentrated upon a scanas a gaseous discharge lamp and (0) application of a Ilihg p On the material secured to drum y periodic electromagnetic field to the electrons forming Optics Afief reflection from the matter, the light is the discharge of the cell itself. All these systems are relayed y Optics 14 to the multiplier Phoieeeii 16, Whieh practical for certain applications, but all have disadvany for example he the yP known as the 931-A haying tages. Thus, the chopper cannot be used with systems a Cathode, an anode and nine y in which the carrier frequency must be rigorously con- The Phoieeathede 0f tube 16 is designated y hilhieiai trolled, unless elaborate equipment is provided for mainthe anode y and the dynodes y numbers ihdi' taining constant speed at the chopper drive motor or vieating their Positional Order m Cathode to anode. brator. The gaseous exciting lamp is usually expensive, Aemaiiy, the dyiioiies are hot arranged as ShOWfl, but are and of course cannot be used where natural light or other Staggered, the Showing in the (if ewihg being Simplified in uncontrollable illumination excites the cell. The mag- -15 this respect A conventional Voltage pp y is indicated netic modulation is rather unreliable and unstable, and for the multiplier tube, comprising a Veiiage divider 22 depends upon adequate shielding f Stray fi 1d connected at one end to a source of voltage 800 volts An instance of an application where none of the prior negative with respect to ground, from W h a l a 24 systems is completely satisfactory is in the use of a mul- Pieks a negative Voltage Which iS PP across a tiplier photocell for controlling the engraving stylus of node Voltage divider 26 i0 Successive p 011 Which the a photoelectric engraving machine Such as described in first seven and the ninth dynode are connected. This prothe U, 5 Patent to J, A, goyajean, 2 575 54 dated vides the potential gradient from cathode through the November 20, 1951. As there disclosed, the photomuldyiihiie ariay required for Ihiiiiipiiel Opera-iii)!!- tiplier senses light reflected from an original, such as a The anode Collector of the tube 16 is pp With photograph, from a scanning optical system hi h 111 suitable positive potential from a source 28 via resistor minates a small spot of the original material. To gener- 3 and the multiplier Output is conveyed to a e0HVenate a screen plate, as contemplated in that patent, it is iiohai amplifier 32 for use in driving the engraving Stylus necessary to superimp se upon the photocell output a of the Prior P frequency which is precisely related, in frequency and The tone or Screen generator of the mentioned Peiehi phase, to the rotation of a pair of drums which carry is indicated y numeral 34, and for the Present P P the original and the plate being engravei its alternating frequency output is delivered-to the con- }n the Boyajean Patent, this modulation was accom trol grid of an amplifier tube 36. Between the generator pushed by using, as the exciting fi ht a gaseous type f and tube 36 is connected a conventional form of dual crater lamp capable of responding to rapid changes in its Clipper circuit 33 Comprising a P Of revei'seiy Connected h, voltage The l Supp1y was derived f a diodes 40, 42, to supply the grid of tube 36 with a squared tone generator driven from the same shaft which carried Weye Shape as indicated Oh the drawing- The Output of the drums, suitably amplified. However, a lamp of suittube 36 is conveyed by coupling capacitor 44 and lead able size gave barely suflicient illumination to render the 46 to the eighth dyhoiie of the multiplier tube 16- Anode machine wholly .reliable in daylight operation, and the p y fer tube 36 is indicated at d a Va ia l lamp was expensive d Short 1i d c 7 resistor 50 permits the tone output to be adjusted to com- With the above considerations as background, it is a principal object of the present invention to provide a pensate for unavoidable difierences between diiferent photomultiplier tubes 16. Other means for adjusting the voltage output of the tube 36 may obviously be emlarly, theoutput maybe adjusted by a potentiometer 54 in the output circuit. Ordinarily, one such control will sutfice, the plural adjustable controls indicated in Fig. 1 being merely indicative of alternative,v possibilities.

.It has apparently been supposed by those expert in the art that modulation could not be supplied successfully to the'dynodes of a multiplier tube, and efforts to modulate on the last dynode have proved unsuccessful, since control could'not be maintained (e. g., theno-light output signal became large), and the dynode is too sensitive to voltagechangesto provide reliable operation. With the circuit of this invention, however, reliable modulation isobtainedin 'a very simple and direct manner.

7 Application of modulating voltages to all of the dynodes resulted in ahopelessly large dark signal; i. e.,.output with zero illumination. Even with shielding of the leads 'little improvement could be obtained. In other tests, by way of example, with modulation .applied to three dynodes (Nos. 4, 5 and 6 of a Type 931A photo multiplier) from taps of a modulation transformer secondary,.thedark1signal was still too great and the maximum'output voltage small, e. g., the dark signal was between 1 /2 and 2 volts with 'amaximum output of about 17 volts. With modulation applied between the eighth and ninth dynodes, the output from the multiplier anode increased to95 volts with a dark signal of .045 volt. A part of this increase is attributable'to careful focussing of theoptics'of the system. This connection of the modulation voltage between the eighth and ninth dynodes, since the ninth is substantially grounded, amounts to putting the entiremo-dulation' on the eighth dynode in Fig. 1.

rtibnsproduced by the input illumination to the multiplier. I Two purposes for the double clipping circuit of Fig. 1 become more apparent "from' an inspection of Fig. 2.

First, it eliminates Wow,or amplitude variations from thetone generator 34 to the grid electrode of tube as. Second, it pre-sliapes the wave output of tube 36 to the eighth dynode o'f'the hotomultiplier and thus avoids the peaking which would occur (see the dotted peaks 5s in Fig. 2) withoutthis shaping elfect. 'The modulation is always downward from the maximum level indicated by the'legend Anodevoltage. If desired, this output can be made more nearly sinusoidahbefore or after it is applied to the amplifierSZ'by the use of additional known shapingcircuitsl T i i V i The application of the above modulating arrangement to "a photoelectric engraving machine of the type described in the Boyajean patent mentioned above will in part be clear from the above description. In that'patent,

the tone frequency generator which generates a tone producing the screen pattern on the'engraved plate is driven fromthe same shaft which carries the scanning druml and the drum carrying the plate being engraved. Forcompleteness, the drum carrying the engraving is shown in Fig.1 at numeral 56 and is shown as coaxial with scanning drum 10 as it is described in the patent.

The dash line between drum 10 and the tone generator 34' indicates'thatthe tone generator isoperated in synchronism .with the rotation of the-two drums. Also, numeral 58 indicates schematically the engraving stylus operating upon" an engraving sheet afiixed to drum 56,

said stylus being controlled by a transducer of the type 4 shown in the patent and energized from amplifier 32 over a channel or circuit designated 60. Since these details form no essential part of the present invention, they are shown only schematically to indicate to those skilled in the art the general manner in which the invention may be applied to a photoelectric engraving machine.

It is possible to omit the 'wave shaping circuits mentioned above, without excessive .departuresfrom a sine Wave output from the photomultiplier anode 20, by biassing the number 8 dynode negative with respect to the number 9 dynode, but by a reduced value as compared the 11-0. voltage difference between the other dynodes. In such a case, the amplitude of the modulating signal from source 34'sho-uld be reduced, and the maximum photo-multiplier anode output signal. will be somewhat smaller. The leakage signal (corresponding to zero light input to the photomultiplier) will normally be excessive unless the precaution is taken of bypassing the dynode below number eight, namely number 7, .to ground with a small capacitor to reduce this leakage signal; A circuit including this feature, as well as a refinement of the invention, is shown in Fig. 3, which will now. be described. 7

Referring to Fig. 3 0f the drawings wherein like nu merals indicate the same parts as in Fig. 1, the tone modulation from source. 34 is applied to modulating tube 36 through a coupling capacitor and via a voltage divider 53. As in the previous case, the output of modulator tube 36 is applied to the eighth dynode over a coupling capacitor 60, but theeighth dynode is biassed somewhat negatively with respect to the ninth dynode, as by a series resistor 62,'whose lower end is tied to the common point of resistors 64 and on between dynodes numbers 7 and 9. Thus, if the resistors-'63 constituting the remainder, of the supply string are 220,000 ohm resistors, resistor 64 may have a value of 300,000 ohms, and resistor 66 a value of 120,000 ohms. A small bypass capacitor 70 is shown connectingtheseventh dynode til to ground, as described inthe preceding paragraph.

As in the embodiment earlier described, the modulating signal amplified by tube 36 is applied tothe eighth dynode thereby to produce from the anode of the photomultiplier a signal for control of the engraving transducer, the signal output lead being indicated at 72. Additional amplification is of course provided as before, the output amplifier being omitted from this figure for purposes of simplification. Modulator tube 36, in this case, performs an additional function which is of importance where the shaping circuits are omitted and the photomultiplier output' correspondingly reduced to ensure approximately sinusoidal output. This is the feedback compensation of leakage signal which would otherwise produce a substantial output voltage under conditions of Zero light input to the photomultiplier.

To this end, a nulling feedback or compensating signal is derived from tube 36, and applied to the' anode of the photomultiplier. In Fig. 3, this voltage is shown as being derived from the cathode resistor 74 to provide opposite phase to that delivered by the photomultiplier to output lead 72, but'obviously it could be equally well derived from any other point in the circuitry of tube 36 at which the amplitude changes proportionately to the magnitude of the modulating signal. This feedback voltage is applied to output lead 72 through a phase adjusting network 76, and the phasing network is adjusted to produce minimum output signal to the following stages with a normal value of modulating signal from source 34, the adjustment beingmade with no voltage supply to the dynodes of the photomultiplier. As so adjusted, it was found possible to reduce the dark signal produced with zero light excitation to a value of 0.0015 volt for normal values ofmodulation amplitude and with voltage applied to the photomultiplier dynodes.

Since both the adjustable potentiometer controls 24 and58 afie'ct the sensitivity of the circuit, they may con veniently be ganged for simultaneous adjustment, and if this is done the proper modulation and feedback amplitudes will be approximated for all values of adjusted sensitivity. A successful circuit of the Fig. 3 type, using a commercial type 931-A or IP21 photomultiplier and a type 6AG7 modulator tube, used the following circuit values:

Resistor 24 1 megohm. Resistor 78 470,000 ohms. Resistor 58, 80, 62 100,000 ohms. Resistor 68 220,000 ohms. Resistor 64 300,000 ohms. Resistor 66 120,000 ohms. Resistor 74 390 ohms. Resistor 82 4,700 ohms. Resistor 84 30,000 ohms. Resistor 86 82,000 ohms. Capacitor 88 700 mmfd. Capacitor 90 4 to 20 mmfd. variable. Capacitor 60 1.0 mfd.

While the invention has been described herein in considerable detail with reference to certain specific and preferred embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that this description is intended for purposes of disclosure and illustration, and not of limitation. The principles of the invention can be carried out with other circuit arrangements, and for also producing a modulated photomultiplier output for purposes other than in connection with photoelectric engraving. Such modifications as fall within the scope of the appended claims are intended to be covered by this invention.

What is claimed is:

1. In combination, a photomultiplier tube having at least a photosensitive cathode, a plurality of secondary emission dynodes, and an output electrode, means for exciting said cathode with a light input signal varying in amplitude, a voltage supply connected to said cathode and to certain of said dynodes to maintain said certain dynodes positive with respect to the potential of said cathode, means for maintaining said output electrode continuously at a positive potential with respect to said cathode and to all of said dynodes, a source of alternating potential connected between said cathode and a certain other of said dynodes to modulate the current drawn by said output electrode, and an output circuit energized by the current drawn by said output electrode.

2. The combination of claim 1, in which said certain other dynode is the last dynode but one counting from the cathode to the anode.

3. The combination of claim 1, including means for maintaining the masimum positive potential applied to said other dynode at a predetermined value with respect to said cathode.

4. A circuit for modulating the output current of a photomultiplier tube at a predetermined frequency, comprising a photomultiplier tube having a cathode, an anode and a plurality of secondary emission dynodes, a power supply circuit for maintaining all but one of said dynodes at fixed graded positive potentials with respect to said cathode, an output circuit for maintaining said anode positive with respect to all of said dynodes, a tone source of alternating voltage, a clipper circuit connected to said source, and means for applying positive potentials only from said clipper circuit between said cathode and the remaining dynode to maintain the latter at potentials varying in positive value at the frequency of said source.

5. A circuit in accordance with claim 4, including an output amplifier coupled to the output circuit of said anode.

6. A circuit in accordance with claim 4, in which said remaining dynode is the last but one counting from said cathode to said anode.

7. A circuit for modulating the output current of a photomultiplier tube at a predetermined frequency, comprising a photomultiplier tube having a cathode, an anode and a plurality of secondary emission dynodes, a power supply circuit for maintaining all but one of said dynodes at fixed graded positive potentials with respect to said cathode, an output circuit for maintaining said anode positive with respect to all of said dynodes, a tone source of alternating voltage, a clipper circuit connected to said source, and a vacuum tube device for applying positive potentials only from said clipper circuit between said cathodes and the remaining dynode to maintain the latter at potentials varying in positive value at the frequency of said source.

8. In photoelectric engraving apparatus of the type including a scanning drum, an engraving drum and a motoractuated stylus arranged to engrave a sheet held on said engraving drum, the improvement which comprises, in combination, a photomultiplier tube arranged to scan material on said scanning drum and having at least a photosensitive cathode, a plurality of secondary emission dynodes, and an output electrode, a voltage supply connected to said cathode and to certain of said dynodes to maintain said certain dynodes positive with respect to the potential of said cathode, means for maintaining said output electrode continuously at a positive potential with respect to said cathode and to all of said dynodes, an alternating current screen generator driven in synchronism with said drums and connected between said cathode and a certain other of said dynodes to modulate the current drawn by said output electrode, an output circuit energized solely by the current drawn by said output electrode, and means for controlling said stylus from said output circuit.

9. The invention in accordance with claim 7, including means for adjusting the magnitude of the modulating potential applied to said dynode.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,369,206 Barnes Feb. 13, 1945 

